Who Are The World’s Richest People?

There’s always a phenomenal amount of interest around the richest people in the world, and the list (or at least the order of it) changes each year. Forbes release a list of the world’s most wealthy and influential people every year, as do numerous other large international newspapers and publications. But why is there so much interest around the wealthiest people in the world?

It’s likely down to both curiosity and jealousy, probably in equal measures. We all want to earn more money (at least most of us do), and knowing there are people in the world who would need to lose tens of billions of dollars before they could be classed as your bog-standard millionaire is equally shocking and fascinating. Who are these people? How did they amass such an incredible fortune? To answer some of these questions, UK guarantor loan provider Buddy Loans has produced an infographic looking at the world’s richest people, highlighting who they are, where they come from and how they made their money:

It’s not particularly surprising to see Bill Gates at the top of the list. The Microsoft founder is in the top 5 of rich lists every year, with his ubiquitous operating system growing in strength and popularity every year since the company’s inception in the mid 1970s. His personal fortune of nearly $80 billion is more than the GDP of some small countries and earns him the title of the world’s richest person.

You would think that technology would be the main source of income for most (if not all) of the top 10, but in fact their income sources are quite varied. The world’s richest people make their money from a range of industries, including technology, fashion, telecommunications, shopping, oil and banking. It certainly gives some hope to those of us not based in one of the various tech industries!

The infographic also lists where the world’s richest come from, charting the origins of the 50 wealthiest people on Earth. As you might expect the US come out top with more than half of the top fifty (26), with Europe coming in second with 11. The rest are split between China (5), India (3), Japan, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Mexico and Canada (1 each).

It will be interesting to see how this evolves and changes into 2016 – we certainly expect a few more of the world’s richest people to be coming from China and India in the coming years!